Lt. Gov. Dan Forest holds town hall

Monday

Oct 7, 2013 at 9:08 PM

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest met with about 50 residents Monday at the City of Hendersonville Operations Center to hear citizens' thoughts on matters from education issues and the federal shutdown to medical marijuana.

By NANCY TANKERTimes-News Staff Writer

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest met with about 50 residents Monday at the City of Hendersonville Operations Center to hear citizens' thoughts on matters from education issues and the federal shutdown to medical marijuana. Forest was joined by state House Rep. Nathan Ramsey of Buncombe County. Addressing the shutdown and debate about the debt ceiling, Forest said, “If my credit card was maxed out, the worst thing I can do is go get another credit card.” He added that he didn't “see any worldwide consequences for the government saying we're not going to fund any more debt.” Forest blamed the shutdown on Democratic leaders. “The Senate has shut down the government, led by (Sen. Majority Leader) Harry Reid. It's a political statement being made.” The political maneuvering was “pathetic,” he added, aimed at making sure “we feel the pain” of the shutdown at the local level. When asked what Republicans could do about it, Forest said, “I don't know if we have a card to play right now.”He also addressed several questions about the new Common Core education standards, and teacher pay. “Education has to be turned upside down,” he said. “If you have a company and you want to employ the best, you have to pay. You have to reward people for results.” Forest also noted that 50 percent of state's budget went to education, and 80 percent of that was spent on personnel. Forest said he would like to see more freedom in terms of what North Carolina teachers can teach and how. Legislators in Raleigh have made strides in “allowing local school districts to use (education) funds how they see fit,” he said, but “the (N.C.) Department of Public Instruction should be funded second and our local school districts first. ... We should put the classroom first, not the bureaucracy.” The development of Common Core standards did “not involve a cross-section of teachers in our state,” Forest said, and noted that federal funds tied to the state's implementation of Common Core standards were sought by North Carolina and other states before they even knew what the standards were. “Who wouldn't want $400 million in federal funds?” he asked rhetorically. “There was no real time for vetting” the new standards, but that is happening now. “I've never been against (educational) standards. ... (but) North Carolina standards should be written by North Carolina teachers for North Carolina families.” A large percentage of districts in the state are rural, he added. “They don't have broadband” or smart boards or every child with a tablet in hand. Despite that, “one-and-a-half-million students are going to have to go online to take a (Common Core) assessment all at the same time at the end of this year,” he said, when some schools are not even technologically equipped to do so.“There are massive costs here and we're charging ahead, but it's unclear what's going to happen at the end of the school year,” Forest said. “There are too many moving parts right now.”Several audience members questioned Forest about the use of medical marijuana, including Janessa Shelton, a Transylvania County resident whose 12-year-old daughter has Dravet Syndrome, which she described as a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy resulting in around-the-clock seizures. From online forums and doctors who were willing to talk about it, Shelton learned that her daughter's condition might improve drastically with medical marijuana. “But the prohibition of it in North Carolina prohibits me from even trying it. My mom had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1988, and the doctors back then said she should use marijuana,” she said, choking back tears. “Why we are here in 2013 having to debate this is amazing. People are needlessly suffering. Why should we be criminals to get medicine? Prohibition of it is the crime. I would really love our state officials to leave these decisions in the hands of doctors.”Forest responded by saying he wasn't a doctor and didn't have a solid understanding of the uses of medical marijuana, and asked Ramsey if he had an official position. Ramsey said he was in favor of allowing terminal patients the use of medical marijuana, but added that he worried about its abuse beyond those patients, noting the billions of dollars that addiction to various legal prescriptions costs the U.S. every year.“You've got to recognize that North Carolina is a very conservative state,” Ramsey said. “If you would start with a very narrowly tailored bill tailored to people with terminal conditions,” he would consider it. “If it is closely regulated by physicians and targeted to terminal patients, there's some opportunity there.”Audience member Robert Door, of Weddington, told Forest and Ramsey he had been able to rid himself of a half-dozen medications since starting medical marijuana and challenged them to expand their understanding the circumstances under which it should be used, including for mental issues. Medical marijuana “isn't a hospice thing that eases your burden as you slip into the dark,” he said. “It is a life-saving medication.”Reach Tanker at 828-694-7871 or nancy.tanker@blueridgenow.com.

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